


The Sacrifice

by TheDiamondFox



Category: Warframe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28990764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDiamondFox/pseuds/TheDiamondFox
Summary: "All miracles require sacrifice." A retelling of one of the most profound missions in Warframe. Using my Saryn and Operator as the questline's.
Kudos: 2





	The Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Took a break to get this out. I'll update my other fanfics just like before, but I thought I'd post this since we had a writing competition in my Warframe clan, and it turned out pretty good.

It was quiet. Too quiet. The subtle rumble of the Corpus engines, the repeating pulse of their Ion Subspace Drives, it was all absent. More notably, the floors of the ship were empty, their metal alloy floor devoid of the marching steps of Corpus workers or the occasional robotic commands of their superiors. 

Perhaps devoid isn’t the right answer. The crewmen were there, but where they were normally shuffling about, either patrolling the ship or doing their tasks, instead their lifeless corpses barring monstrous slash marks littered to foyer.

The ship wasn’t completely lifeless, however. Indeed, one figure stood amongst the carnage, the dark green and black form standing like a monolith in an otherwise lifeless massacre.

The figure was tall, standing well over 6 feet, with every fiber and muscle underneath its flesh accented and taught, hinting at immense strength. The figure was humanoid, with its arms and legs strong and immense. Its legs were large and muscular, but where its left leg was lean and curvaceous, radiating an elegance not seen by many, its right was lumpy and malformed, as if infected with some unseen parasite. The figure’s arms were of a similar state, with queen-like elegance seemingly contaminated with parasitic disformation. Small lumps could be seen on the forearms, littered with numerous small pores, while massive fractal-like shoulder plates adorning the upper arms and shoulders, splitting off into gold and black pentagons in a crystal-like fashion. The figure was vaguely female, with the bust and waist of a rather fit woman. Multiple fungal-like protrusions jutted and curved around its shoulders, with the slight breeze of the ship causing them to blow in the wind. The parts untouched by the seeming growths were smooth and durable, with faint hints of gold metallics plastered around the figure’s assets. The head of the figure, however, was another sight. Gone were the growth-like malformations of the torso and limbs, instead taking its place was simply a monstrous crown. A gold, cage-like head adorned the top, dropping and melding into chitin-like armors and spikes down the sides. The inside of the cage seemed to house some semblance of a brain, which radiated a soft greenish-gold glow. The front of the face was smooth and featureless, save for an eyelike fixture in the front which shared the same glow as the head. At the base of this face was a single stub of gold, and behind it seemed to rupture a bloom of gilded petals, each blossoming from orifices underneath the face. The entire figure radiated a toxic aura, glowing that sickly greenish-gold. 

To the beings of the Sol System, this figure would have no name known to them, for few would survive to see its might. To the Tenno, one name deserves the respect and fear that clothes this being

_Saryn._

Grasped in its hands was a weapon that fit the figures description. Radiating a nauseous green aura and sporting massive amounts of spore-like malformations, it was fitting that the weapon's name be “The First Horseman,” crafted by the very figure that held it. Upon its back was a Kuva Bramma, its glowing green ends making it instantly identifiable, while resting on its side was the Kuva Brakk.

The Saryn seemed to turn its head, surveying its surroundings. It was used to bloodshed, but the sheer _pointlessness_ of it disgusted it.

“What am I dealing with here, Ordis?” came the surprisingly child-like voice of the Warframe. It was soft and high-pitched, but feminine. 

“It seems Umbra was… **soaking in the blooo** … eliminating the Corpus threats here,” came the robotic response of the Orbiter Cephalon.

Saryn seemed to grip her Zaw tightly. “Why would he do this?” she muttered to herself.

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Ordis declared.

Saryn surveyed the damage for a few more moments before composing herself. “Lead the way, Ordis,” she said with determination.

A ping on her HUD showed her objective. Using speed that would baffle most humans, she bullet jumped over the massacred corpses towards her objective. 

“Operator,” came the cry of Ordis.

Saryn stopped mid jump, her legs landing on the ground with a resounding clang.

“I have detected an increased Sentient Presence in the area,” continued Ordis.

Saryn cursed inwardly. “Ballas must have found him,” she muttered.

As if on cue, one of the containers on the ship started to flicker. Suddenly, the container evaporated, revealing the form of a Mimic.

Saryn cursed inwardly as she bullet jumped away from the Sentient just as it dove for her. 

“Operator, I have detected Mimics in the area,” came Ordis’ comment.

“You think!?!” cried Saryn in annoyance as she proceeded to blast the Tau robot with her Brakk.

The results seemed fruitful at first, with the Sentient reclining from the impact, before a blue orb started to rotate around it. It had developed immunity to her attack.

Wasting no time, she quickly unsheathed her Zaw and dove towards the sentient, hacking at it with vengeful fervor. 

Within moments, her attacks were met with its evolving resistance.

It swung at her again, and this time connected, sending Saryn flying. She was propelled backwards into a clatter of containers.

“Operator, the area is shut down,” cried Ordis. “We need to handle those mimics.”

“Shut up,” muttered Saryn, using the nearby container to get to her feet.

The container flashed.

“Shit,” Saryn said as the container evaporated, revealing another mimic. She quickly leaped backward into a sealed door, preparing a fighting stance as the two Mimics approached her. She shifted her position before leaping into the air. As the two mimics froze to reorient themselves, she quickly launched her spores at the two. The two Tau shapeshifters froze as the spores spread between them and launched into a third unassuming container. As if on cue, the container suddenly evaporated to reveal the third sentient.

As Saryn landed, the three Sentients turned to her, their resistances already beginning to resist her spores. Saryn almost smiled. She curled in on herself in what seemed to be a pain expression, before releasing a shockwave of viral pestilence. The three Sentients froze as they were met with Saryn’s Miasma, with the first one to appear falling into Tau energy. The other, significantly less damaged sentients easily fell to Saryn’s Brakk and Zaw. 

As the last Mimic dissipated in a blue glow, Ordis piped up.

“The Lock Down has ended!” he cried happily. “Now where is that Warframe?”

Too tired to respond, Saryn bullet-jumped down the newly-opened blast doors. As she continued, the audible howls of Umbra could be heard in the distance, with each new room she entered a massacre of Corpus bodies. However, as she entered the Depository, she was met with something comparatively worse than the massacre outside.

Excalibur Umbra.

Standing almost as tall as Saryn herself, Umbra’s entire demeanor radiated unfettered rage. His body was cloaked in dark greys and blacks, with his well muscled arms and legs adorned with a golden crescent reminiscent of a Greek Omega. His torso shined with pristine gold outlets on each side, and a massive black scarf trailed down from his neck in the center of his torso. His helmet was grand, accenting the curves of the helmet rather than interrupting it like the Prime variant. A gold crown seemed to sit atop his head, the gold bleeding into his head with orokin precision. The crown was broken only by a soft orb of blue light at its crest, shared similarly by the crests on his torso. At his side was a blade of similar design, a tattered cloth at the base of its golden, omega-shaped hilt. 

Saryn walked slowly forward, so as not to trigger the rogue warframe. Indeed, it radiated a sort of dark beauty that was absent from the Excalibur Prime; where Prime was made with the exquisite whites and greys of the Orokin Prime warframes, Umbra seemed to be made its opposite, a twisted incarnation of that sacred warrior.

“Operator?” Ordis seemed to whisper. “Please be careful.”

Saryn nodded as she retracted her Kuva Bramma. With trained procision, she lined up the bow with Umbra and pulled back the arrow.

As if sensing her presence, Umbra turned in her direction and Radial Howled. Abandoning her attempt, she bullet-jumped into the air as the shockwave reached her. Her vision flashed as the howl reached her, and she barely had time to register the attack as Umbra descended on her. Thinking fast, Saryn quickly unsheathed her saw and intercepted the downswing of Umbra’s Skiajati. Before she could counter attack however, Umbra howled again.

“Void damn it!” shouted Saryn as she was blinded again. It took everything she had to defend against Umbra’s whirlwind of attacks. 

Finally, she saw an opening. Bullet-jumping away, she unleashed her Miasma onto the unsuspecting Orokin artifact. It froze for a moment as the Viral Shockwave unleashed itself outwards, but the Warframe’s shields held up. 

However, that moment was enough to pull out Saryn’s trump card. With an unearthly sound of energy ejecting, Saryn froze as a young child ejected from the Warframe. As she hit the ground, the child stared at Umbra with unearthly power.

The child was odd. Clad in ornate armor, the plates of it alternated between red and gold, with the weave joints colored black. The child herself seemed to be in her early teens, with a short stature and an underdeveloped body. However, her general posture of the child conveyed terrible pain. The entire front portion of her face was masked, with faint scars and marks visible peeking out from behind it. The only unmasked portion was her left eye, which glowed a golden light. The eye itself seemed to carry a massive weight, as if the child had been exposed to a massive amount of trauma.

As the Miasma of the Umbra wore off, it paused to see the child standing there, its pose one of dominance despite the large height difference.

Umbra howled again, but this time there was no shockwave. It charged, but the child was ready. Outstretching her hand, the child released a beam of pure blue energy onto the Warframe, draining its shields despite the attack. It continued to charge however, and it was almost upon her as its shields finally disappeared. 

The child would have smiled if she could. As Umbra was upon her, she seemed to almost _dissolve_ into it, and as the body of the child melted into the warframe, Umbra froze.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<>0<>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Trouble concentrating, Old Friend?” came a masculine voice.

A _familiar_ voice.

Ballas.

The man tried to move as the Komi stone game sat to his left ready for his next move. 

But he couldn’t. 

He didn’t want to.

Nonetheless, there was nothing he could do. 

He moved.

 _This one, a brother. These three, his children_ , the voice of Ballas rang in his head. _And on and on, all of these done to the Jade light_.

Another move.

“Father,” came another voice. This one he felt. Younger, more energetic.

 _Isaiah_.

“Do you remember your Shawzin?” cried Isaah, his son. The boy seemed to smile in his Bishamo armor. “Remember how you’d sing to us ‘Smiles from Juran?’”

“A fine instrument,” agreed Ballas.

The man strained with all his might to look at the Shawzin. A memory triggered in his mind, but swiftly was dashed away.

“How thoughtful, to remind him of his better days,” said Ballas, noticing the man’s gaze. “Come now, your move. Only a few stones left.”

The man strained back towards Ballas, looking at the board. One move. An obvious one. 

He made it.

The board cleared, as he was the victor.

“Isaah,” said Ballas with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. “Looks like your father still has his sharp wit.”

Isaiah returned the smile, although this one did reach the boy’s eyes. _His_ boy’s.

 _Yet you couldn't understand why I'd give my secrets to our enemy. How could I betray my own kind?_ Ballas’ Transference voice was cold. Callus. _But you have never had to sacrifice your love for faith. Imagine. To live, forever, with only one memory: seeing the one you love, die._

The man started to squirm, trying so desperately to shake off his impending dread.

He wasn’t… he wouldn’t…

 _But you won't have to imagine,_ Ballas continued. _A lovingly cultured Infestation swarms within your blood. Your transformation has begun, reshaping you into a sacred surrogate of the unholy Tenno..._

Ballas smiled

_A Warframe with but a Single._

_Burning._

_Memory._

_It is... a miracle._

The man squirmed, fear cloaking his vision. He wanted out! He wanted to get away from the insane Orokin in front of him! 

But he couldn’t, and he was filled with nothing but dread as the Orokin’s words rang in his head and ears:

“But all miracles require sacrifice.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is different from my usual stuff. I'll continue with my other fics as usual.


End file.
